Duel on Mount Olympus
"You must vow to forever serve me!" "I serve no-one!" "Then you leave me with '''NO CHOICE'!"''-Joshua Woodsand Spelchure. As the new Spelchure was far more ruthless than his oldself ever was. He waged a vicious campaign in once again glorifying Sparta throughout Greece, capturing many cities. Zeus was uneasy about the new appointed god, feeling unsafe upon his throne in Olympus. Once, when Spelchure was assaulting a city in his mortal avatar form, he encountered an elaborate plot to destroy his reputation, that included assassination of Naga Sadow favorite beast, Argos, by an unknown assassin, with blame falling entirely on Kratos. The situation was made even worse when Hades' minions attacked Spelchure, and the messenger of Olympus, Ceryx, who was sent to make sure Kratos will not uncover the culprit behind the events, was slain by the infuriated Undead Warrior. Zeus advised Athena to warn Kratos & Josh that with every city destroyed in the Spartan army's conquest, the wrath of gods would grow ever stronger. Kratos failed to comply with Athena’s warning and descended from Olympus down to the island of Rhodes, where his men lay siege. As an enormous god, Kratos tore Rhodes apart. However, Kratos did not realize that Spelchure, had followed him. Flying over the massive Kratos, Spelchure drained the godly power from him, shrinking the god of war to human size. Spelchure then used the stolen power to animate the Colossus of Rhodes, a statue of Helios which overlooked the city. With the metallic monster assaulting Kratos & Joshua throughout Rhodes, Spelchure prepared to bait his trap with the one thing Kratos could never resist: Power. Misleading Kratos into believing he was at his side, Zeus gave him the Blade of Olympus to use against the Colossus. Draining all of his godly power into the blade, Kratos defeated and destroyed the Colossus, weakening himself in the process. It was at this time that Spelchure revealed himself to Kratos. He asked Kratos to become his personal servant, but the proud god of war refused, disgusted. Claiming that the cycle would end here, the king of the gods took the Blade of Olympus and impaled Kratos, leaving him to die, and then experience eternal torment in Underworld. Within seconds of his seeming victory, Spelchure took his Undead Blade and destroyed everything in Rhodes, including The Spartan army. While Kratos was thought to be dead, Spelchure also attacked and destroyed Sparta itself, partly because many Spartans had worshipped Kratos far more than the rest of the world, but mostly as an act of revenge for Kratos' unwillingness to succumb to him. Having done these deeds, and believing the problem with Kratos & Joshua to finally be resolved, Spelchure left for his throne on Mount Olympus. And finally arriving at the Flame's chamber with Gravelyn, only to be interrupted by Spelchure himself. Spelchure prevents Gravelyn from her destiny and engages Joshua, though the latter bests the King of Shadowfall in a duel and suddenly has a change of heart. Gravelyn was made to be the "Key" to Pandora's Box, which is what truly rests within the Flame of Olympus, and would have to sacrifice herself. However, due to inadvertent prodding from Spelchure pleads that Joshua not "fail in his decisions this time", Joshua releases Gravelyn and attacks Spelchure in a rage, only to be stunned by the Flame's dissipation. Joshua Uses the Flame of Olympus, only to discover that will kill Spelchure. Spelchure mocks him for "another failure", and heads outside in order to recover, while Josh's rage grows even stronger. The King of Kings meet outside once again on a familiar platform, but before either can claim victory, the platform is suddenly shaken by a reawakened The Collosus (believed to have been killed during the fight and subject of many Titans anger against Josh however), who violently shakes them and causes them to flee inside of his body. Inside of his chest, Kratos and Zeus duel near in his heart; Spelchure sucks her heart of it's life and rejuvenates as does Joshua, and finally Joshua impales Spelchure with his Undead Blade against The Rhode's heart, seemingly killing both of them. Awakening amidst cracked earth, Joshua finds Spelchure's body impaled on a rock, and extracts the blade callously but kept it. Gravelyn arrives to congratulate Joshua on his victory and requests that he turn over the power he claimed from Pandora's Box & the Flame of Olympus, but he reveals that he'll Use it again against the 7th lord of chaos. Gravelyn claims he is Honorable with the flames, because when the evils of the Titanomachy were first sealed into the box, as a safety measure, she placed into the box the "most powerful weapon in the world", hope, to counteract the evils. Athena demands Joshua return this power he obtained from the box that rightfully belongs to her, for now that the world is cleansed by chaos, she will rebuild it under her rule with the power of hope. Athena realizes, however, that when Joshua first opened the box to kill Vath, as the evils infected and took hold of the World, especially Kitsune, the power of hope infused itself into Joshua. Hope had been buried deep beneath the anger, need for vengeance, and guilt, and when Kratos had finally learned to forgive himself for his past, he had released the power. Athena again demands Josh give her the power, & he gaveto her. Category:Story Arcs